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brendan and i had our first prenatal class tonight. i was very pleased to discover that brendan knew one of the girls – she'd the daughter of one of nancy's best friends – and i've heard a lot about her. it turns out they also know my dad. her husband's grandpa is a good friend of his, and they all know each other through queen's football. pretty neat! i was hoping to make some other mom friends through the class, so i'm pleased to already have one in the making.

we ended up choosing a class with childbirth kingston. there were a lot to choose from, but as the instructor mentioned tonight, birth and parenting is full of decision making, so i guess i need to get used to it. i'm happy with what we chose. they meet in the basement of the midwives clinic and it's just a block away from here. the instructor is actually a retired midwife and there were a good number of other participants who are using midwives. it was an interesting mix of people and everyone seemed quite nice. at one point we split into men and women's groups to brainstorm different pregnancy discomforts, and afterwards brendan and i swapped notes on the tone of each group. it seems the some of the guys felt a lot of obligation to complain about their old ladies, and many of the women seemed to delight in naming all their discomforts as though it was a way of fitting in. i think both are cultural behaviours and not reflections on the character of the people. it's just something i'm aware of because i don't want to be an overly enthusiastic complainer. from the list that we created of pregnancy discomforts, i'm grateful to say i've only experienced 1/3 of them, and in general i feel that i've been having a good pregnancy.

we have a little bit of homework to work through before next week. it's mostly just exploring our attitudes around different aspects of birth to uncover fear. reading over the sheet i felt pretty comfortable and i was reminded that it's very empowering to be familiar and informed about pregnancy and birth in advance. i'm especially grateful to have been at two births, it really demystifies the whole experience.

i was hoping that one day you'd be next to me or at least somewhere near.